Saturday morning, I stopped at Ray's and he figured out the sill bars and we made a plan to install them on Monday..and hopefully get started on the race seat mounts and harness bar.

Then I went by Prevailing Communications to talk with Tim about what he's going to be doing to the car. We believe that we may be getting sponsored in part by Kenwood and would be installing a race radio and music radio with iPod compatibility...hey, its a long ride down and back!

We also talked about other issues, such has our SRS (airbag) disconnect options and other switches and options. We figured out our rear racing lights and what the plan was for the front. Tim was excited to get started, which in turn got me excited. He wants the car a week from Monday, preferably with the race seats in, so he can figure out where his stuff needs to go. Like Lonnie and Ray, Tim is true artisan craftsman and his installs are clean and professional! I can't wait to see it!

So Tim wants it next week, with the seats...I guess I will be pushing Ray just a bit

Then I stopped off at Lonnie's. Lonnie has been super busy with family and business stuff so we haven't visited much, so it was nice to see him. We sat and had a beer and he fed me one of his awesome homemade burritos

Well Lonnie was on his game and once I told him that I would not have time to paint the car for the M1K, he had some fantastic ideas which will get the car looking amazing for the race. And no, it does not include woodgrain. So, move on fellas....move on!

If you guys love the woodgrain so much, I'd love to see woodgrain on your Titan Fishy Pants and on your wife's new car Teegarden! Until then....shut it!!

Today, I needed to permanently bolt in the rear of the roll cage, to do this, I needed to get the rear struts out of the way. My garage is full, so I went down to my neighbor Carl's shop.

He had the heat going, and who wouldn't feel safe with this heating system blasting along??

Carl is a fixture in this small community. He is about 80-years-old and spent his working years as a millwright. His shop and generosity have kept many cars going around here, even when folks didn't have the money to pay Carl for the work he did. Put it this way; His Karma bank is busting open at the seams!

Of course, every shop need a shop dog, and in Carl's shop, it's Hennessy.

It was nice to work in the warmth and dryness of Carl's shop. I took my time, had a great time visiting with Carl and getting done what needed to be done.

I bid farewell and went home. I decide to do a little more work and with some cardboard, plastic and an electric heater, I turned the Subaru into a paint room and got some paint on the cage. I only got about half-done before the sun dropped and I couldn't see anymore.

I predict some major updates to the project in the next three weeks...please stay tuned!

I predict some major updates to the project in the next three weeks...please stay tuned!

Geez Pauly, that’s a car! I did that once and it was great fun until gear oil was dripping into my arm pit for the second time and the door didn’t open because of the dirt ditch the car was lying in. I would stick to the bike.

Geez Pauly, that’s a car! I did that once and it was great fun until gear oil was dripping into my arm pit for the second time and the door didn’t open because of the dirt ditch the car was lying in. I would stick to the bike.

Thanks to a change in Ray's schedule, he was able to put some time into the car today! So I drove over to his shop and we got started. The plan for the day was mount the seats and harness bar.

We decided to concentrate on the driver's seat and then tweak the passenger seat location when my wife is available to come by and get fitted in the car.

We started with the rails that bolt to the seat.

Then Ray fabbed up some very cool brackets so the race seats mounted to the stock seating bolt locations. Another cool thing about the Subaru is that the harness hardware is the same size and pitch and we were able to use existing seatbelt mounting holes to mount up the lap belts as well. I am still able to use the stock seat belt as well, which is great for just driving the car around.

Next up was the harness bar. Of course, some of my fine painting was sacrificed as I knew it would be...

I was watching Ray work and it is amazing to see him produce beautiful welds upside down and while laying in precarious positions. Earlier in the build, he was even using a small mirror to weld in a tough spot.

Ray's friend Jay came by to do a little Baja bench racing and I was very glad to meet him. I have been talking to Ray about and idea I had to build a Volkswagen Karmin Ghia or Slantback off road racer. Jay had built a Type 3 off road rig in the late 70's and took it regularly to Baja. Thankfully, Jay brought some vintage photos.

What a beauty!

And compared to a stock one..what a monster!

Jay built the car to be more of a pre-runner than a racer. He has made more than 27 trips to La Paz over the years in cars, vans and motocycles. He's been around the races and experienced that truly magical time of Baja in the 60's and 70's. His first trip to Baja was in the 50's. He talked about how it all changed when they started paving the road.

Jay would pitch a tent on top of the VW's roof rack way before those roof top mounted tents were invented ("I guess I should've patented some of my ideas, huh," he joked).

Or he would ride in comfort in this custom Ford Econoline he built up as a Baja expedition vehicle!

Jay talked about how you would just stay with the ranchers and they were happy to see you. You'd buy gas from them out of 50 gallon drums and filter it with a Chamois. He talked fondly of the time he spent in Baja and his time building cars and helping out at the races. These moments are perhaps some of my favorite parts of doing these builds. Getting to meet some cool folks and get inspired by their experiences. He felt like he was holding us up, so he wished me luck and told me that I should stop in on him sometime at his place in the desert when he is down there. Turns out, he has a cabin only about 60 miles northwest of Mexicali!

By days end, we did get the driver's seat install completed, and the harness bar and driver's harness installed including the submarine strap. Tomorrow I will go to Lonnies sign shop and give him some money to order some vinyl. We'll discuss the graphics package and then on Monday the car goes to Prevailing Communications for mucho electronic gratification!!